HC extends Wankhede’s interim protection till June 28, asks CBI to produce case diary

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Friday extended the interim protection to former NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede in the alleged ₹25-crore bribery case in connection with the arrest of Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, to June 28. The court also directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to produce before it the case diary on June 27.

The extension was granted after the HC said it wanted to see the case diary detailing the investigation of the case in which Wankhede, two other former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials and two private persons have been booked by the CBI for allegedly conspiring to extort ₹25 crore from the actor in exchange of not booking his son Aryan in Cordellia drugs bust case of October 2021.

A division bench of justice AS Gadkari and justice SG Dige, while hearing Wankhede’s petition for quashing of the CBI FIR, was informed by the agency counsel advocate Kuldeep Patil that the CBI was seeking discontinuation of the interim protection granted to the IRS officer.

When the HC sought to know the reason behind the insistence, Patil submitted that the protection was injuncting the agency from continuing its probe which is at a preliminary stage. However, the bench asked the agency to produce the case diary.

The case diary contains the contents of interrogation of Wankhede at the CBI’s Bandra Kurla Complex office over a period of seven days.

The bench said that as the agency had issued Wankhede notice under section 41A (Notice of appearance before police officer) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), it meant that they did not want to arrest him, and hence asked it to make a statement that unless the stage under sub-section 41A (3) (The police officer is of the opinion that the person ought to be arrested) and (4) (Where such person, at any time, fails to comply with the terms of the notice) of the CrPC was reached, the agency would not arrest him.

“Why don’t you tell us whether you intend to arrest him? Don’t play hide and seek with us,” the bench said and asked the CBI to state that if the stage was reached then CBI would not arrest Wankhede without giving him a 48-hour prior notice.

Patil then said that the agency would arrest Wankhede only if he failed or refused to cooperate with the investigators.

Senior advocate Aabad Ponda for Wankhede informed the bench that he had attended the CBI office and they had interrogated him for seven days continuously and had not called him thereafter.

“You (CBI) are seeking vacation of the interim relief granted to him. Don’t you think we should see the case diary,” the judges said, adding that the arguments advanced on behalf of the CBI were creating doubt in their minds.

Patil then submitted some documents, but the court refused to accept the same. Patil then assured the bench that the case diary would be submitted till June 27. The court posted the petition for further hearing on June 28 and extended the interim protection granted to Wankhede till then.